Quote of the Day

"It's a great sport, a timeless sport. It's relaxing, it's fun. It's one of those things in the African-American community I wish that they would push more. Hopefully I can encourage people to do that."

-– Seahawks QB Russell Wilson, on his love of baseball and what he hoped to accomplish by visiting the Rangers' Spring Training facilities earlier this week. (USA TODAY, 3/4)

Top Stories

As ESPN enters the run-up to its final FIFA World Cup, the network’s top programming execs say they remain committed to soccer even without the sport’s biggest event. Although Fox Sports snatched the rights to the next two World Cup events in '18 and '22, ESPN will continue to be an aggressive bidder for domestic and int'l soccer rights, said ESPN Senior VP/Programming Scott Guglielmino. In addition to a pending deal for MLS and the U.S. men’s national team World Cup qualifying games, ESPN touts other high-profile int'l deals, including rights to the Mexican national team’s games (through Univision) and about 350 UEFA games that include World Cup qualifiers. Both of those deals run through '18. ESPN holds rights to t ...